Summer 2011

We've had a great (and fast) summer! The lazy days are quickly coming to an end as school starts again in two weeks. It seems like baseball (finally!) ends and then it is a mad dash to vacation and enjoying some free time. We just returned from another awesome trip to Hilton Head Island. It was heavenly!!

Easter 2011

Happy Easter. We had an awesome Easter weekend. We had family in town and enjoyed a great dinner on Good Friday with cousins. The kids had a blast. Saturday was spent lounging and spending some time at the batting cages for Aidan and Cian. That night we attended the Easter Vigil mass. It was great! Susie joined the Catholic faith and lots of our family and friends were on hand to welcome her! It really was a special night.
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Easter Sunday started with baskets and egg hunts around the house. The Easter Bunny took the easy way out this year and hid all the eggs inside. After a morning of leisure, we headed to my aunt's house for dinner. We had a blast and the kids think Aunt Linda's house is the greatest (I think so too!).


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I had trouble getting a decent picture with all four kids, but for some reason the pictures with only three of them turned out pretty good!


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The egg hunt had a twist this year. Half the eggs were filled with confetti. If you grabbed a confetti egg, then you could "smoosh" it on another person. If an adult got smooshed, they were in the game and could retaliate on the kids. It was a great idea and we had a blast.

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Papa getting revenge on Aidan.

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Aidan returning the love to Cian.

The weather was perfect and all was right in the world for one day! Just as Easter should be!

Sizzling Southwest

We just returned from an amazing Spring Break trip to Arizona. We had a great time hanging at the pool, hiking, riding trains, seeing the Grand Canyon and spending time with Grandma and Grandpa!
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Our first night's dinner watching the desert sunset!
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Hiking in Cave Creek Park. The kids did great...very little complaints and they lasted 2 hours!
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St. Patrick's Day in Sedona!!
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The amazing Grand Canyon. It cannot be represented in photos! I was surprisingly nervous standing on the rim. Some of the ledges do not have railings, so traveling with little ones kept my heart racing! Thankfully we all made it home!

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Waiting for the Grand Canyon railway to pick us up.

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How grand is that? We had a great time!!

Recitals

Aidan and Cian recently had recitals. They both did a great job. They have come so far this past year in learning the violin. I love to watch them!
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Gotcha Day #2

Wow, two years already!! We have been so blessed to have Maeve in our family and it is amazing how much she has changed over this time! She has grown and matured beyond her years. Two years ago today her world was rocked beyond belief as she was handed over to strangers. We had already fallen for her and stared at her pictures for months, but she had never seen us! I am in awe of her bravery to face the unknown and come out on top! God definitely has plans for this beautiful little girl!!
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This is the first photo we saw of Maeve. She stole our hearts immediately.
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To witness the change in her has been a true gift! She is such a happy, spunky, stubborn, playful, funny, opinionated and wonderful child.
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Maeve told me this is her princess dress.

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The smile that lights up a room.

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We love you Maeve! Happy Gotcha Day!!

I can see clearly now the...

Snow is gone!!! Yippee. We have been enjoying some awesome early Spring weather! It is almost (almost) painful because I know it isn't going to last. It is so great to have the kids outside.

Maeve is doing really well and we had a check up in St. Louis last week. She has progressed out of the cast and into a more manageable splint. It comes off and she can get her hand wet now. Her hand has lots of healing left to do and the bones haven't healed yet, so she still has two exposed pins. They don't seem to bother her, which is great. Hopefully these will be removed in two weeks when she returns for another follow up.

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Modeling her new splint.

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Aidan's basketball team has had a rough season! They are playing in a much more competitive league and are struggling to keep up. I think it is more painful for the parents though, because the boys are having a great time.

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Fintan is doing great. He took a spill in the front yard and is happily showing everyone his injured elbow. We had to change the dressing today and it was really funny watching Maeve sit next to Fintan, comforting him. She kept saying, "It's okay Tintin."

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Cian's basketball team has come a long way this season for new beginners. It has been cool to watch the boys learn new skills and catch onto the rules. One more game and the season is over.

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Trapped

This winter is gettin' old, real fast! We received a dump of 12 inches of snow this past week. Most of the city shut down for Tuesday and Wednesday. It is so cold that you can't really enjoy the snow too much and we (I am) are ready for this cold weather to be over. I feel trapped easily and am desparately looking forward to summer. We have had a few things going on to keep us busy.
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Maeve is doing really well. Her "cast" is now falling off daily and we have to redress it. This was never told to us as an option, but we spoke with the surgeon's office yesterday and everything seems to be going well. One more week until we go back for an eval.
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Cian and Aidan had a father/son cake bake competition with cub scouts. It is supposed to be a joint effort, but looking at most of the cakes I think the dads in the pack did most of the work. In our house, it was done by the boys. Cian made a sponge B0b cake.
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Aidan did a beach and graciously allowed Fintan and Maeve to help him decorate.
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We have two new birds. It has been two weeks and they are both alive and doing well. This is Cian's bird, Oliver.
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This blue guys is Fintan's bird, Otto 2. He is not as friendly as Otto 1, so he hasn't been out as much. This may be a life-saving trait on his behalf.

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